Page 150 of Creeping Lily

I know that now. Maybe I’ve always known.

Some things are written into bone, carved into the marrow of two souls long before they ever collide. And Lily and Titan—hell, they’re living proof of it.

Their story didn’t start the day I met her, or the first time he came back into her life. No. It started long before. It started in the shadows of childhood, in the fires that tried to consume him, in the scars she’s been carrying since she was old enough to understand what it meant to lose him.

And me? I was a guest appearance at best. A footnote in a book that was already written in blood and violence.

Still—it doesn’t stop the ache.

I stand at the edge of the meadow, tall grass brushing my palms, and watch them. Lily walks ahead, sunlight tangled in her dark hair like sparks of gold. Titan’s a step beside her, dark where she’s bright, scarred where she’s soft. He matches her pace like he’s been doing it his whole life. Like he was born to keep stride with her.

They don’t hold hands. They don’t need to. There’s an invisibletether between them, tight and unbreakable. I can see it in the way she glances up at him without even realizing, like she’s checking he’s still there. I can see it in the way he scans the horizon, always searching, always guarding, but his body leans the smallest fraction closer to hers, as though the pull is instinctual.

It guts me. But it also settles something deep inside me.

Because I know.

I know no one will ever love her like he does. And no one will ever keep her safe the way he can.

My chest tightens. I swallow hard against the lump in my throat. I could’ve been good to her—I know that much. I could’ve made her smile, could’ve given her a life of stability, of warmth. But she doesn’t need a man who can make her smile. She needs a man who can stand between her and the fire. A man who knows what it is to be gutted, and still rise from the ashes to fight for her.

That man will never be me.

And that’s okay.

I love her enough to be glad she’s found the one who will.

The future’s a blur for me, more uncertain than it’s ever been. I don’t know where I fit now—what my purpose looks like without the quiet hope of Lily at the center of it. Maybe I’ll never know. Maybe I’ll spend my life drifting on the edges of other people’s stories. That thought hurts more than I’ll admit, but it doesn’t feel like defeat. It feels like truth.

I’ll carry the sting of it, sure. Love unreturned always leaves its scar. But I won’t let it make me bitter. I won’t let it turn me into the kind of man who poisons what he can’t have.

Because when I look at them now—her hand brushing against his arm as they walk, his head tilting down just enough to catch her voice—I don’t see something I’ve lost.

I see something worth protecting.

Even if it costs me everything.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding, and a small smile tugs at my mouth. It’s not joy, exactly. But it’s peace, in its own ragged way.

Lily belongs to Titan.

Titan belongs to Lily.

And me?

I’ll be the shadow watching their backs. The quiet guard no one asked for but who will always, always be there.

Because loving her doesn’t mean possessing her. It means wanting her safe, wanting her happy—even if that happiness lives in someone else’s arms.

And as the meadow wind bends the grass around me, I understand something with bone-deep certainty.

She’s safe now.

She’s home.

And that’s all I’ve ever wanted.